Book/Dissertation / PhD Thesis

FZJ-2021-04996

http://join2-wiki.gsi.de/foswiki/pub/Main/Artwork/join2_logo100x88.png Development of Electrochemical Aptasensors for the Highly Sensitive, Selective, and Discriminatory Detection of Malaria Biomarkers

Figueroa Miranda, G. (Corresponding author)FZJ*

2021
Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH Zentralbibliothek, Verlag Jülich
ISBN: 978-3-95806-589-5

Please use a persistent id in citations: http://hdl.handle.net/2128/29594  urn:nbn:de:0001-2022011104

Abstract: Malaria, a vector-borne disease caused by $\textit{Plasmodium}$ parasites, still has high mortality rates, mainly in tropical and developing countries. Towards the desired malaria eradication goal, the “test, treat and track” policy of the world health organization (WHO) plays an important role. The early detection of malaria is crucial to provide timely and adequate antimalaria treatment. However, there is still need for the development of a low-cost, highly sensitive, selective, and quantitative malaria test that can also discriminate between the two more common $\textit{Plasmodium falciparum}$ and $\textit{Plasmodium vivax}$ malaria parasites for guiding a correct treatment. This research project aims to develop a novel, highly sensitive, and selective electrochemical aptasensor for discriminatory malaria detection. In this dissertation, the performance of apreviously established electrochemical malaria aptasensor is optimized by means of the blocking molecules to detect malaria in biological samples. Posterous, the aptasensor detection was translated into two different transducer detection platforms for their characterization and possible application as point-of-care (POC) malaria detection technologies. The first point was achieved by implementing a polyethylene glycol (PEG) film to suppress unspecific binding from human serum on an electrochemical malaria aptasensor fabricated on single gold macroelectrodes. A detailed study of the variation of the chemical and morphological composition of the aptamer/polyethylene glycol mixed monolayer as a function of incubation time was conducted. Higher resistance to matrix biofouling was found for polyethylene glycol than for hydrophobic alkanethiol films. The best sensor performance was observed for intermediate polyethylene glycol immobilization times. With prolonged incubation, phase separation of aptamer and polyethylene glycol molecules locally increased the aptamer density, thereby diminishing the analyte binding capability. Remarkably, polyethylene glycols do not affect the aptasensor sensitivity but enhance the complex matrix tolerance, dynamic range, and detection limit. Careful tuning of the blocking molecule immobilization is crucial to achieving high aptasensor performance and biofouling resistance. [...]

Note: RWTH Aachen, Diss., 2021

---

Contributing Institute(s):

1. Bioelektronik (IBI-3)

Research Program(s):

1. 5241 - Molecular Information Processing in Cellular Systems (POF4-524) (POF4-524)

Appears in the scientific report 2021

---

Database coverage:
;

---